Ghost
by MagicalGirl23
Summary: A human girl with connections to Christmas stumbles into the Holiday Worlds, gradually becoming a part of Halloweentown. And over the years changes many lives in the process.
1. Prologue

**I don't own NBC nor am making any money off it. This is just a fun way to make that annoying consiousness between naps bearable. Enjoy!**

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It had started on a brisk autmun afternoon, just like many others I can now often recall. Nothing at all to indicate what would nothing short of change my life forever. My childish instinct to wander had taken me far from my home, miles from anything familiar, into the deep, forest behind my home.

But my desire to get away was so overpowering that I paid little to zero attention to my surroundings. Only that I wanted to go away, far away where I wouldn't have to listen to the bigoted insults of my fellow children.

For those of us who are not only young, and have an unusual imaginations is usually enough to keep parents on their toes. But throw untrained magical powers into that cake mix and you will stir up a whole mess of trouble. And that's what happened.

The soft sighs of a pair of curiously playful Air Slyphs who had followed me made themselves known in my ears. As we played games with the colorful fallen leaves on the path making me feel somewhat better. After all how could one feel bad when they had such magical playmates as they? When something, to this day I couldn't tell you what it could have been. It enticed me to look up ahead for there was a clearing of trees that cast long shadows in the noonday sun.

Those things had stood there long before even I in my childish wanderings had happened upon them.

Ages upon eons, compounded by milleniums and centuries. And I but a young girl of seven had found them or rather as I liked to think in the years since then like many other wonderful things in my life. That they found me.

And what's so special about a bunch of ancient trees? Espacially in a forest when one direction happens to look like another, which ever way you turn. Well, my dear readers at first glance. Yes, they are quite ordinary until the sun hits them just right revealing, doors! Yes, honest to goodness doors, hinges and all set right into these massive marvels. But these aren't the normal types that every Tom, Dick and Schmo has in his or her home.

Oh, no! In this circle I discovered each one as unique and original as the one beside it. Surely, of clovers and hearts, turkeys and fireworks, and so on but two drew me like none of the others. Side by side these two couldn't have been more opposite, day and night seemed trivial by comparison.

A Christmas tree and firecely grinning Jack-o-Lantern.

Even at that young age it didn't take a genius to realise what I had then. These were the holidays of the year!

I sat down in the middle of that grove and pondered for what I think was almost an hour. Because I was counting the ants at my feet and I'd reached exsactly 1, 672 before coming to a decision that would change my world and those in front of me forever.

What child in her right mind would pass up the chance to explore the oh so rich secrets that now laid within my grasp. I asked of my companions who were still with me at the time, what lay beyond them.

_"Do not know,"_ one whispered.

_"Always been same,"_ said her sister.

_"None come in. None come out," _They replied in unison. _"Forgotten. Centuries."_

The lands beyond those doors called to me like nothing else to the very fiber of my being it resounded. And

I reached out, grasping the first knob completely at random. And thus did my new life begin.

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**This is one of my first fics, so please push the little button down here and review. Thanks.**


	2. New Worlds

It's been a wild ride I'll give you that.

Over the years I've made many friends and had many amazing adventures with those who dwell beyond the doors of the glade. But what I've found most facinating is that each holiday world is a land unto itself, litterly. No one remembers that other holidays exist in the human world save their own each is isolated from the other by many things but mostly that most elusive of all masters, time.

I've been mobbed by leprecahuans wielding shamrocks like lethal weapons, and had to dodge be-diapered rosy cheeked cherubs from using my backside as target practice. The bunny is ok as long as you approach from the front, and let's just say the pilgrims have a lot of family issues to sort out. Plus, to many fireworks can get a little old after a while.

But hands down my all time favorite holidays are those I first saw on that day, Christmas and Halloween.

When in these worlds I've learned the most and had the most amazing times, you see I had a connection to Christmas that I'd not even realised I'd had. Until, I first entered the house of Mr. and Mrs. Claus or now as I refer to them Papa Nicky and Nana Sarah. What? Didn't you think they had real names! Anyway, I'll get back to them later.

Now, Halloween. There's a fun place! Even when not celebrating, the citizens of Halloween Town live the most amazing mundane lives. Though their town is one of the smallest I've ever seen, and I can easily name every face within it. The place never seems to change and strangely though it works for them. And me.

When I first arrived in Halloween Town unlike my previous excersions I observed the comings and goings of the townsfolk. Rather than making myself known to the first interesting being who slithered, walked or other mode of bodily transport happened by. I'm glad I did.

For they have a rather unique view of their world. "Scare it all and damn the consequences."

Needless to say I liked it.

And over the years I've gotten to know them as they have never even known me. Sounds, strange I know. But please bear with me. You see while they embrace the strange,the weirdand sometimes the downright bizarre. Humans don't exactly rate very high on the public opinion poles, as the mayor could tell you.

Now, that guy is litterly the most honest politician I've ever seen. Because you can trust your own eyes that he's two faced. It's very funny to watch when somebody asks him something and he gets so frustrated that his head whooshes about likethe spin cycle in a washer. Poor guy runs through various medicines like sugar candy.

But in short, the mortal population is basically good for only one thing, _scaring fodder_.

During the first few years I kept quiet and just poked about the town seeing and learning what I could. Surprisingly, I got very good at blending into the shadows. I watched in everyday life, peeking through windows and listening at doors looking down from high places. Watching at how they celebrated Halloween sometimes even following them as they scared the unweary. Some things I liked, some I didn't.

Like Dr. Finklestein or Oogie Boogie whenever I saw him slinking about, I'd run in the opposite direction!

I got to know that creepy lout in another way, that I won't mention this early in the story. But I assure you, dear reader, it's worth the wait. Because it's means pretty much everything later.

Now so far I've just voiced my dislikes, and that's only half the story. For you see among the Halloween Town populace I loved two people by far the most, Sally and Jack. Because to me they were the most what the ordinary world would coin, normal. Or at least as one could be when you lived here.

Sally is a beautiful living rag doll made by the town's Official Mad Scientist, Dr. Finklestein. And did that poor baby heave the worst lot or what. The good Doctor, you see, is a shriveled, wrinkled husk of an old man confined to an electric wheelchair. That I'm almost positive is as ancient as he is. Also his weirdest hobby is building stuff and attaching actual pieces of himself to them!

Talk about the personal touch. _Ugh!_

Sally is one of his youngest creations and became the recepient of his hands. Personally, I think they look better on her anyway. But for all his handicaps that guy is as firece as a rabid pitbull and will guard anything that he considers his, Sally for example. She works and slaves in that tower all day, never seeing what it's like outside, never allowed to do anything fun. Yet, she still is able to smile and be an absolute sweetie to everyone.

Jack Skellington on the other hand is just as you first probably think of him. For he's litterly a skeleton in a black suit . Not much to say except, he's a nice guy and all around perfect gentleman. He's the one and only, King of Halloween. Needless to say everyone in town adores him. For at scaring there is definately no one better than he. Though he has has his little ghost dog, Zero along at every turn. He's always struck me as more than a little lonely.

It was these two who my life would one day revolve about completely.


	3. Finding Myself

_Big hugs for Sugary Snicket! My first reviewer, thanks SO much! I hope you enjoy this new chapter._

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By now I'm sure you're wondering what a human girl has to do with Halloween.

Well, at first absolutely nothing.

To tell the truth, I was content with my lot in town. I'd lived many years watching over everything and it served me ok. Even when that whole _'incident' _that was later aptly named, The Nightmare Before Christmas happened. In short, Jack got bored, and somehow got it into his thick skull it'd be better for the whole world if Halloween took over Christmas.

**Big mistake!**

The chaos that ensued over _that_ little fiasco. Now years later, still gives some of the elves who used to know nothing but Reindeer Games and Candy Cane dreams, nightmares. And caused Papa Nicky to install something the first of it's kind at the North Pole, a year-round shrink. Out of pure necessity, I assure you. Many of the elves, still have..._ahem...issues. _But let's not get into that.

For my older brother and I, on the other hand that memorable Christmas Eve wasn't really all that tramatic. Believe it or not, a few kids did like getting the Halloween-themed gifts. I used to call big brother, a mad scientist-in-training, and the miniature labratory set he recieved he wents nuts over. Espacially when it made a rather nice companion to the working toy electric chair he got. All in all, it went pretty good for him.

As for me, I recieved my first working broom, and the all around prettiest voodoo doll you ever laid eyes on. She wasn't destructive in any way. She just reminded me of the ghosts I'd seen lurking about in the Halloween Town cemetary. The phrase, _"a beautiful kind of melancholy," _best decribed her. And she told the best stories, I'd ever heard. I named her, Annabelle.

It was a horrible surprise to wake up the next morning and find our presents taken away, to be replaced with nothing short of junk.

Big brother was horrified to find both his electric chair and scientist set replaced with a skateboard and a Game Cube. I was equally so to find in place of my beloved Annabelle and my broom, this cheesy Easy-Bake Oven and a pair of Rollerblades, which I'd never even asked nor cared for. It was one thing we both agreed on wholeheartedly, we wanted our stuff back.

Later that day, I traveled to the North Pole, via the Holiday Trees. And gave Papa Nicky a no small piece of my mind, which is something considering it was coming from an eight year old at the time. Papa and Nana both listened to my plea on behalf of that small majority. In the end, I won. On the condition that all the other gifts were returned. That turned out not to be that big of a problem. All in all, I got Annabelle back before she got shipped back to Halloween Town. I spent the rest of Christmas Day, to the amusement of my parents happily whizzing up and down the snowy, December skies on my broom. While the aspiring Mad Scientist almost burned down the garage, thus getting grounded for a month. It was a good, if not memorable day.

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But still, haven't you ever wondered... 

_Who grows the pumpkins you carve in the autmun? _

_Who reaps the long grasses to stuff the scarecrows and and such or cuts the wood for the many bonfire parties?_

_Who tells the winds to knock the colorful leaves from the trees, so children can play in them?_

_Or sends the October frost to lull the world into it's long, wintery slumber?_

That would be me, my name Raven Nightwing.

An all-around proper Halloweenish name as anyone would care to tell you. But as I have said before, I had to hide who I was. Because Mortal equals scaring fodder, at least back then it did.

I was ten, when I my wanderings led me to that deserted field on the edge of the woods. It wasn't your typical place, that was for sure. The Halloween townsfolk called the area, The Nameless Lands. It fit prefectly, because while in sight of town, it was well past even Lock, Shock and Barrel's ominous tree house. About it was the strangest aura I'd ever felt in any of the holiday worlds. All I knew for certain was that even Oogie Boogie, himself wouldn't venture there.

What could possibly be so frightening to those whose sole purpose in un-life was to frighten? I had wondered to myself.

I soon found my answer.

Upon following an old dirt path and found what appeared to be, a gate and it's keeper. A woman who appeared to be a cross between a storybook banshee and a scarecrow was lashed into a cruxificton pose with ancient barbed wire. When I approached she appeared to be resting peacefully, I wasn't even sure if she was alive. Until I got too close, her eyes shot open so fast I fell to the ground in surprise clutching Annabelle who was riding in my coat pocket.

_"I told you this was a bad thing to do,"_ she quipped in that quiet way of hers.

The woman just watched me with these almost grotusquely big, beady black eyes with pinpoint black pupils that stood out from her straw-colored skin. Before throwing back her head and spewing forth the most eerie, maniacial bone chilling laugh I'd ever heard, including Jack's. It sounded like a wailing laugh almost. I had to clamp my hands over my ears to drown out the noise whch sounded like a siren wail in my poor shattered eardrums.

**"Who dares come to this place, where even the King of Halloween fears to tread?"**

"Me." I replied very irritated by that time.

It was then she seemed to really notice me for the first time, her eyes almost popped out of her head. When she realised I wasn't an inhabitant of the town. **"You're human!"**

Finally after a little cililized conversation, I found out she was indeed a rare subspecies of banshee. Apparently she'd been banished there even longer than anyone could remember, including her. But out there where even the citizens of Halloween feared to tread, she'd declared herself a sort of guardian of it's mysteries. Of which I found out were indeed many. She seemed surprised that I was there, period. Also that I had no desire to pass by her gate, I was perfectly content in having my first real conversation in the Halloween realm.

Because I plopped myself down right in front of her, asking any question that popped into my head until the great Jack-o-Lantern sun hung low on the horizon. I continued to return whenever I could and Annabelle still continued to advise againest it. I never listened. She still continued to shriek and moan threatingly, only now it had lestened in intensity. As if her heart really wasn't in it anymore. I think she was just lonely.

I called her Morganna, because she couldn't seem to remember if she'd ever had a name in the first place. She was rather egotistical creature by nature, the extravagant name seemed to please her immensely.

One day, to my everlasting surprise when I climbed the familiar path for our daily visit. I saw the gate was open and Morganna closed herself behind me in order to secure me into the fields beyond. It was a whole new part of the world to explore. I imagine she got a huge kick listening to me, a human child, live it up in the one place nobody dead would go. It was the ultimate paradox.

Out there was bigger than it looked for I found not only an old pumpkin patch, but an orchard as well. All touched with countless years of neglect and abandonment. Somehow it called to me, almost without thinking I began to weed the edges of the pumpkin patch. Day after day, I faithfully returned to tend my newfound charges. It took a long time, as the field was large and I was very small.

I brought tools to help me in my tasks, old gardening implements that I'd fixed up or made from disguarded trash in town. Surprisingly, sharp objects were not hard to find there, espacially about Behemoth's place. As I began to tame the landscape, I began to notice things. Strange mists and shadows darting in and out of the corner of my vision, eerie sounds coming down from the hills. Things went missing later to find them in the oddest places.

I once found my rake stuck up in one of the apple trees, but the strangest occurance happened when I saw a pair of fierce red eyes. They gleamed like firelit rubies from the boundry of the woods beyond. We stared at each other for the longest time, though I didn't feel threatened at all. Rather I got the impression I was being tested and appraised for some reason. But I wasn't worried, Morganna had let me in, I had nothing to fear.

Not long after whilest taking a break, I sat down on a clump of grass. At least at the time that's what I thought it was. Until it exploded, snapping and snarling out from under me.

That's how I met Old White and his mate, Night Black.

They were strange, yet fantastical creatures. But they certainally fit the Halloween profile, they lived in the woods patrolling the borders of the Nameless Lands. While they possessed the appearance of wolves about twice as large as a full-grown man. But instead of fur, their coats consisted of twigs and long grasses. One could not have been sure which was what, it provided unsurpassed camoflage in the dense undergrowth. As incredible as it may seem they also had the unique ability to flatten themselves completely out so they could resemble a pair of grassy knolls, only with eyes.

That's how I learned to tell them apart ironically, Night Black was female, and she's the one who possessed the red eyes I had seen. She was definately darker than Old White, in more ways than one. Her coat was mostly sticks and twigs mirroring her perferance of the woodlands. Old White, on the other hand, his grassy coat could glow like a beacon under the light of a full moon. It went well with his haunting, golden eyes that masked a mind far wiser than he let on. They called themselves, Mistwolves. All due to the extraordinary ability they possessed to produce and manipulate, the cold fogs and temperature fluxuations, I'd experienced of late.

They, like Morganna had been exiled from places far away, only to find a home for themselves and their children there in the Holiday worlds. Nor could they remember ever having names either, those were in turn my first gifts to them. They became my friends, a second family.

But still I yearned for more, a way to become more fully apart of the world I'd come to love so much. Yet, a part of me due to the instinct all humans have purely for the purpose of self-preservation. Stubbornly clung to my humanity like one of the Dark Lagoon Leeches on a blue plate special. My friends understood, but for all their power could offer no help.

Little did I know, however, that my prayers were going to be answered in a most _unusual _fashion. And I had my brother solely to than for it. It was an accident, litterly. All thanks to that Mad Scientist Kit of his, years later he still tinkered with it. Because it was one of the few gifts that actually grew with him. He'd _improved _a few things on it, not that Mama and Daddy ever knew. I made him pay me through the nose to keep quiet about it. Well, apparently there are certain substances you're never suposed to mix, ectoplasam and Wraith's Essanse for example. Espacially past the expiration date!

He'd set up his own little lab out in a corner of the still-standing garage, and it was my turn to clean. One moment I'm putting his junk in order then accidently knocking said clutter askew, the next I'm drenched head to toe in this pinkish-cream colored goo. There was no explosion, just a lot of griping over ruined clothes. But the results happened happened almost immediately, when I was leaning on the workbench wiping my face off with a shop towel. My arm phased itself right through it!

I soon began to discover more and more about this wonderful transformation. Ironically, it was TV that provided more helpful information. Think Danny Phantom. I was a real life _Halfa,_ I couldn't believe it. I not only possessed that which could gain me acceptance in Halloweentown in a very unique way, but also retain the humanity I cherished.

In the years that followed, my new abilites opened up doors for me that I never thought possible. All the hidden inhabitants of the Nameless Lands united themselves under me, and I became their unofficial sovereign. As I unlocked more of the mysteries of my new home, I harnassed their abilites to help me in my new self-appointed tasks. Though no one realised it the Nameless Lands had a very large part to play on the whole Halloween stage of whose mantle had never totally been picked up, until I came.

And I was all too happy to do so.


	4. Enemies and Friends

**Sorry this took SO long!!!! I've been working on my other Count Cain/Godchild story. Anyway, once more I own nothing and am not making any profit from this. So enjoy!!

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In fact, I wouldn't have been if not for the intervention, if you can believe it? Solely because of the three little terrors known as Lock, Shock and Barrel. My _human _self, would have never set foot in Halloweentown.

And I'm sure you're wondering, how was this accomplished? But once more, I'll tell you later.

But first, for those of you who don't know who they are. Lock, Shock and Barrel are siblings, always together and prone to mischief of one kind or another. I never knew where they came from, I don't think anybody did actually and truth be told. I never really cared either. Always dressed as a devil, witch and a skeleton, they held the position of Halloweenland's best professional trick-or-treaters. It wasn't that that was made the townsfolk wary of them. No, in Halloweenland it's one of the finest and oldest traditional professions.

Lock, Shock and Barrel were schemers. They were clever. And they always had something up their sleeves, litterly and metaphorically. (I saw a lot of people learn that one the hard way.)

Every Halloween they would come into the human world solely for the purpose to play nasty pranks, and trick treats. And most of all, fruitlessly spend half the night trying to free up the #1 slot of their revenge/hit list. Which I'm proud to say, I have remained the single and uncontested holder of for the last _fourteen_ consecutive seasons. An accomplishment in no small way, I assure you. If I bothered to tell anybody, that is. Not to mention, I'm absolutely positive silence concerning the matter is the _only_ thing that those three have _ever_ remained unanimously agreed upon, without fighting.

Especially from Oogie Boogie.

He was the one they named their leader, the one who had molded them into they're troublemaking little hellion selves.

Mean, fiendish Oogie was a giant bulging sack, stuffed to the brim with nasty snakes but mostly insects. That had a way of sneaking through his badly stitched seams. His second favorite activity was prowling through the dark, looking for things -or people- to eat. One of the main things, I remember about him was that, Oogie was always hungry. And I mean **always! **For a glorified potato sack, he was pretty much akin to an organic garbage disposal. Also a creature of great vanity and pride, he fancied himself the scariest creature in Halloweenland.

Yeah right!

To tell the truth, looking back on it now. I'm not exactly sure how my even stranger relationship with the three got started. All I remember is it involved, super glued plastic-wrap, glitter confetti, sand paper, a string of firecrackers, leftover Valentine's Day patterned toilet paper (the vibrant kind with hearts and such) and one _really_ cranky Billy goat. Not necessarily in that precise order.

Now the concept of time, in these worlds is a foreign one. To put it bluntly, it doesn't exist, period. The closest you can ever get is the Great Seasonal Clocks that reside in the square and or main hub, of every holiday world. They measure the months of the year, rather than in the way we know it. Which mainly I think is because inhabitants of these worlds have no practical use for it. Oh, they still recognize the concept of day and night as such, but that's about it.

Year after year, it was pretty much the same routine. In the simplest terms you could describe it as, The Great Prank War. And that was the nice way of putting it! Those three would try and try, oh how they tried. Once in a while, they got points mostly for sheer persistence and determination alone. Once in a greater while, for ingenuity and even rarer, originality.

Sometimes I'd hear them whispering outside the cemetery, or one of my little 'spies' would give me some crumb of gossip they'd catch. A couple of times I waited all year, just to watch their ill-fated plans be put into motion, ultimately destined to fail. For the sheer entertainment value, I assure you. And sometimes, I would kick-start a plan early for occasional payback that was always a nice bonus too.

Even though this was so, I was still subject to the world in which I lived. The seconds and minutes turned into hours and days, which morphed into weeks and months. The seasons changed and the years passed, sometimes slowly, other times quicker than I could blink.

And I did in that span what all human children are eventually prone to do, I grew up.

But that didn't diminish my love for my adopted holiday home, or lessen the desire to continue as I had with the three. Who despite all that had passed, remained as children, and I think would so eternally. There were even times in my teenage years I even envied them for it, but later I thought better of it. For more ways than one.

Now just because they only saw me once a year, in human form, doesn't mean I got off scott free. Oh no! Like all the inhabitants of Halloweenland, I received my fair share of, _undiscrimating_ mayhem. In fact, those three were the few who didn't. But I won't go into the gruesome details.

By nature, the folk of Halloween were highly selective about who to trust. I was unusual, even for them and that was putting it lightly. I think I even scared them a little bit, if you can imagine it? Whenever I came to Halloweenland I always changed into my 'halfa' self. It wasn't really anything glamorous; nothing about my appearance was really all that different. Only that I had white hair, silver eyes, and my skin would emit this moon pale glow.

But I didn't let them see me as I was. I wore a baggy shirt rolled up at the sleeves, form fitting gloves that went up to my sholders, long semi-fitting acid washed denim overalls, practical workboots and a droopy straw hat with my hair tucked under it. And just so no one would see my face, I wore a scarf wrapped about my neck and face.

I think it was my secrecy, rather than the fact that I just appeared one day from the direction I did. And due to the fact they weren't sure _what_ I was, and I had an almost perfect humanoid form. Even though covered up, kind of freaked them out.

I rarely came into town. Only a few times a year, actually. One of my jobs was to grow all the pumpkins and the straw, that Halloweentown used in it's celebrations. I would come to the gate, bearing my burden attend the mayor's annual mandatory quota meeting. Where I would be last in sitting at the back, listen to the usual litteral gripes and groans and such, then be first out. Then with a mutual respectful nod to the rat-like gatekeeper, or an occasional gentlemanly tip of a hat on his part. He would let me go on my way, which was usually flying away.

On the other hand, unlike their parents, I was an endless source of fascination for the children. They would follow along at my heels, asking me questions, which I would nod to depending if I felt like it or not. In fact, it was from them I got my alter-egoish name, Ghost. From the little corpse boy actually, he once managed to peek under my hat. Then said my eyes gleamed like, 'a ghost during the full moon'. And thus would I remained called.

The parents would wait wary of me, standing on the sidelines until I was safely gone. Then collect their offspring, properly scold them and promptly forget about it the next day.

Many people in Halloweentown have notoriously short memories, living, no pun intended, only for the next scare. Or prank.

Like I said, Lock, Shock and Barrel. My little arch nemesis', like one would with a wild animal I usually kept a respectful distance. I can't say they extended me the same curtsey. Far from it, I can't tell you how many times they tried to break into my garden in my absence. For heaven knows what, which I don't really think I want to know. But they never have, so I just thank divine Providence and leave it at that.

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It was on such a day, years ago, that I first really met Sally. I had seen her a few times about town, usually crouched in some filthy back alley running from Old Dr. Finklestien. But somehow she found her way to me, and my hidden little garden near the woods.

While weaving back troublesome briars that were trying to weasel their way among my separate and more prized pumpkins. I heard Morganna raise an alarm; in fact I think you could have heard it half way to Thanksgiving. It was that loud.

I was tired, I hadn't had lunch yet, and the briars were turning me into a pincushion. Not in the mood, for any of the trio's mischief, I approached with a mind on giving them a though tongue lashing. Even with the intent on dragging them in tow to Jack Skellington's front step, if need be.

Yeah, I was in that bad a mood.

"Morganna, give it a rest! I don't need the townsfolk who actually sleep at this time, to come up here in a torch-wielding mob." I called to the screaming banshee making my way up to her.

In response, she merely hissed in a tone unlike I was used too. "Trespasser."

That only fueled my suspicions about the trio and I was just about to call up the biggest wind to blow the three away. When to my everlasting surprise I found, not a bunch of naughty, demonic children. But something that I first thought was a bundle of rags among scattered leaves, but in my experience rags don't cower. Nor beg for mercy.

Sally scooted along desperately trying to get away, at least as far as one could get with a half-attached leg and non-attached arm. My heart went out to the poor rag doll; I wasn't going to hurt her. I could smell the Doctor's handiwork all over this, yet another failed attempt to get Sally to stay put most likely. Now if the wizened little imp had really been smart, he'd have invented himself a walking machine or maybe a whole new body. He was always giving upgrades and other such junk to his other creations, but he was just a stubborn old fart, still is actually.

I was just about to say something, when I heard a loud, shrill voice cut like a knife over the path. **"SALLY!"**

The fear in her eyes towards me was nothing compared to what was reflected when she heard that voice.

Instead of thinking, for once I simply acted.

I jumped over the fence, scooped up the incapacitated doll and flew back over in under a second flat. She must have been too surprised for she didn't fight me only stared with those large black eyes of hers. Knowing what the other townsfolk thought of me, I could only wonder what her opinion was. But for now, I just needed to be sure she wouldn't try to escape or harm me or herself.

"Keep still as Death, rag doll. Or I shall not be able to help you." I said in as firm a voice as I could manage.

She nodded, somewhat stunned. That I, of all people in Halloween would help her.

But instead of answering her questioning gaze, I hurriedly returned to my work as though nothing had happened. Sure enough, I heard Doctor Finklestien call out to me across the field.

"Doctor Finklestien, to what do I owe the honor of your visit to my garden?"

He seemed startled to hear that I actually had a voice. For he quickly corrected his features and gave a polite cough to clear his throat. "I am sorry for such an untimely intrusion, Ms…?"

"Ghost." I replied.

"Ah, yes. Ms. _Ghost_." He coughed as if a little uneasy. I have no doubt he was. "Anyhow, I was wondering if you had seen my _companion_, Sally. She seems to have vanished sometime ago. And I am very worried for her safety."

Companion, my Aunt Fannie. Slave is more like it, I thought. But there was no way I was telling him that. I could almost hear Sally holding her breath as if she thought I would betray her. As if. I cared for this little hypocrite even less than she did.

"Your pretty little rag-doll?" I shook my head. "No, I am sorry. But I haven't come across her."

He however much to my well-hidden dismay, seemed to have noticed the leaves on the ground. And as the trees were all long since bare, he came to the only_ logical_ conclusion. Even though he had those little dark glasses on, I just knew what was going on behind them. I had to think fast, a quick glance at the gate and I had it.

"You may come in and look around, if you wish?" That seemed to snap him out of his little mental paradox.

"Excuse me."

I smiled evilly under my scarf mask, opening that gate was probably to the closest to revenge I'd ever have on him. So, I decided to draw it out, good and long. It seemed that the gate agreed with me because it let out the most long and eerie, _ssssqquuueeeaaakkk!!!!! _I'd ever heard, I could only wish I'd had my camera. Because my memories don't do it justice.

The look on his pasty face as he only stared at it like it was a 'death-mile' you hear about at prisons and such. He clearly couldn't believe what I was doing, and I'm sure neither did Sally.

"I've been working all day. Perhaps I missed something, would you like to check?"

As uneasy as Doctor Finklestien was before, I don't think he was any eagerer to get going in the opposite direction than at that particular moment. "Ah, No thank you. I trust if you see her you will notify me at once."

"Of course." He seemed to take that as some sort of weird signal. Because he just about lept for the control of his chair to comeback the way he came. Almost tearing off the wheels in the process.

In the meanwhile, I got back to an astonished Sally. There were no words spoken as I silently sewed her back together and allowed her to rest on one of the smaller haystacks. By sundown, I noticed she was gone.

Probably left in understandable fear of me, I had surmised. I didn't pay it much mind; I had done my good deed for the decade. I was very much used to such treatment by then. It didn't surprise me that the Doctor had found her the very next day in the graveyard, but at least she'd had one night of freedom. I didn't hear anything of her for a while after that.

But the next time I saw her in person several months later, when she caught sight of me. I noticed something in her eyes had changed, she didn't look at me in the same way that the others did anymore. Somehow between us words have never really been needed, even at first.

We exchanged a slight, imperceptible nod unnoticed by anyone else.

I smiled in spite of myself, it seemed like I had made a new friend.

Oh, how right I was.

--------------------------------

Finally it was Halloween Night. This was not a favorite holiday to some; others like me, loved it. Well, it was also a given anyway, I often listened to my Goth friends lament about why it couldn't be 'all the time'. That was something I didn't have to really worry about, after all I joyfully lived and worked it everyday. Even though, this consisted of a well deserved 'day-off' for me, it was still nice to see the fruits of my labor throughout the world anyway. Especially when others enjoyed it.

That night though, I had ended-up finishing with Lock, Shock and Barrel quite early actually. I won't go into specifics, as that would take longer than this story. But let's just say, the result was a molasses and chicken feathered trio duct-taped to the back of an interstate bus, with me waving bye armed with a camera for posterity's sake. One of my more memorable achievements.

Hey, I have a scrapbook fetish, so sue me. And unlike my fellow creatures of Halloween, I don't really do the scaring thing. After all, I actually _have_ a life, litterly and metaphorically pun intended. Not that they knew that, anyway. The After celebrations usually took place after midnight, ending a few moments before dawn. This ' human' party was a chaperoned dance, and most of us had an early curfew. I would be home well on time, and after my family was safely tucked in bed, plenty more to sneak out, 'live it up' as my alter-ego at an even wilder celebration, then get back with nobody the wiser.

The party wasn't that bad, it was the usual stuff. There were alot of kids I knew from school and the surrounding neighborhood in various costumes. There was a pretty cool dance floor with an awesome sound system and small, interesting special effects, lights and stuff. A buffet with the supposedly 'grotesque' goodies you find in Better Homes and Gardens magazines. Others were watching appropriately themed movies, like Sleepy Hollow or Poltergeist, or mostly my older brother Toby, or his best-friend Brice do generically stupid stuff as usual.

Boys, Ugh. Give me the Dead or the Undead any day, because I'll never understand the living half as well.

Anyway not that everything wasn't fun, far from it. My friend's were having a blast, but I had lost a bet with my own best-friend, Wakaba Shinohara. Long story short, she thinks of me as her own personnel Barbie doll, I end up in an elaborate custom-made 'Gothic/renaissance angel' get-up (not that it was a bad thing, it was very flattering actually). And I secretly suspect that Toby had had a hand somewhere in getting me into it.

Basically, I just wanted out of it!

Where hours and countless 'proof' pictures were concerned I had put in my due, and then some. That and my best friend was a stickler for authenticity, as the black, tattered wings on the outfit were beginning to annoy me something fierce. And the corset, while pretty, made it really hard to breathe.

As soon as I came to the safety of Wakaba's bedroom, I immediately pulled the wings fastenings from the black and red corset. Simply grateful for the freedom movement, I now possessed once more. I smiled at my artfully dark make-upped face in the mirror, (which Wakaba had also done and I really liked) and was about to pull off the corset, when something caught my eye. A shadow of movement in the back of the room.

I couldn't help but give a mental groan; I knew it was probably one of my Halloween brethren. Now for some unknown reason, as much as I repulsed them as 'Ghost', I seemed to attract them that much more as 'Raven'. I pulled up the medieval skirt train a little so as not to trip, and slowly made my way over to the place where I had seen it.

Nothing.

I frowned, I knew everyone's macabre games and morbid tricks, inside and out, and nobody I could think of seemed to fit this supposed 'MO'. I couldn't help but wonder if, for once, I really was just imagining things. But the little rational voice that just has to make an appearance, during times like these and shatter any calm one might generate, had to speak up. And so kindly, remind me... I was sincerely praying the whole time that I'd get lucky, and it would be one of the guys in a cheap, rubber goblin mask. Then I could just lock them in the closet for the remainder of the night and get on with my life.

No dice. It much to my careign proved to be right.

Because when I turned around to walk back to the mirror, a tall, thin skeleton in a bat bowtie was in front of me. He lunged and growled, but all my years in Halloweenland had pretty much made me immune to any and all frights. That and my subconscious registered 'who' it was faster than my rational mind did, because my face remained pretty much emotionless.

Now I was a citizen of Halloweentown, Not that Jack knew that at the time. I knew what he was like beyond the mindless, relentless scare factors his other subjects expected of him. Not that he wasn't good at it, heck no. Like the trio, he was beyond the best in his given field. It's just that when you know another side of a person, the _real_ side. It's just _really_ hard to comprehend anything different than your preconceived image of them.

And that's pretty much how it went.

Instead of screaming like a lunatic like a _normal _human would, I just smiled.

"Are you trying to frighten me, sir?" I asked in a very amused voice. "I'll have you know that not much scares me, though it was a good try?"

The look that crossed his skull was like those Kodak commercials, one word, _priceless_.

It was a real thrill actually; I'd been 'visited' by just about every creature in Halloweentown at sometime or another growing up, with mixed results. But I'd never had the distinct honor of Jack Skellington, King of Halloween taking a crack at it, nor did I ever think I would. So, in leau of the situation, it was real treat for me. I felt a little sorry for him as his face morphed from very confused, to down right perplexed.

Poor guy, every Halloween, when he went out into the human world, children as well as adults screamed at his frights. I could just read his mind at the moment, _'Why is this one girl not afraid of me?'_

The look on his skull was still somewhat confused, as he just started to quickly back away from me. As if I had industrial strength cooties or something, and leapt out the open window into the backyard. I watched him closely, as it was a second story window and I didn't want him to break anything. But, no. He proved nimble as ever, as I watched him land with enviable grace and stealth. Then scurry down the hill and meld into the shadows of the woods at the edge of the property.

Laughing, I changed back into normal comfortable clothing and and went back to the party.

-----------------------------------

I wouldn't know till much later. Just how far Jack would go in order to shave off the boredom and keep the impressive and more importantly spotless track record. That his subjects were SO proud of.


End file.
